Subject: Re: internationally available krb
To: Todd Vierling <tv@pobox.com>
From: Charles M. Hannum <root@ihack.net>
List: current-users
Date: 09/16/1998 21:31:20
> Yes, we could.  This is how PGP was exported - though, of course, the PGP
> International is technically illegal to use anyway as its licence is pretty
> strict with the source code books.

Um, some factual information here:

* Copyright covers *ONLY* distribution.  It does not, and cannot,
  affect usage of a copy that was legally obtained.  (The term
  `copyright' isn't accidental; it literally means `right to copy'.)

* Other issues may affect usage of the code.  These include patents
  and shrink-wrap licenses.  I know of no place in the world where
  shrink-wrap licenses are valid; if you didn't make an agreement to
  get the code, you can't be bound to an agreement after the fact.
  (Note that if you download the code from the PGP Int. or MIT
  servers, you have to click on a button agreeing to their license, so
  you're probably bound to that agreement.)  PGP 5 uses Diffie-Hellman
  by default, the patent for which expired roughly a year ago.

Therefore, if you have legally obtained a copy of the code, you are
free to use it for whatever purpose you wish -- despite what any
shrink-wrap license included with the code may say.  Just because they
tell you something, that doesn't make it legally valid.  It's
basically a scare tactic.